(June 8)
The Louisiana State Senate should not just rubber-stamp the appointment of Roy Carubba, the acting president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, to serve a full term in that position. While Carubba may well merit the job, some complicated questions first should be answered.
The Senate has an obligation to ensure that key appointees are well vetted. Especially for an agency as important as one that provides flood and hurricane protection for 650,000 people, lawmakers should make sure the right man is running the show.
The Senate is scheduled to approve or disapprove of all pending board and commission appointments on June 11 and 12.
The levee board undeniably has been riven by turmoil in the past year. Four members of the nine-member board resigned in March in protest against Carubba’s leadership and actions, and continuing board member Clay Cossé has published a letter to the same effect. As complaints and blame-casting fly against and from Carubba, the board canceled its May meeting for lack of a quorum occasioned by Carubba’s own absence. Result: The board was unable to approve the agency’s formal hurricane plan before storm season officially began.
Carubba says the board vote would be a mere formality and that all systems are ready for the storm season. The Senate should probe to see if he is right.
Meanwhile, Carubba frequently throws around accusations against past and present board members, calling them “corrupt.” Now, in a new accusation, Carubba told me on June 3 that “The four board members that resigned did so pursuant to a civil service grievance.”…
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Meanwhile, Carubba’s own residential eligibility for the board, or possible lack thereof, also deserves vetting. Is he even permitted to serve in his board position?
By law and by Landry’s official letter appointing him, Carubba fills a seat explicitly designated for, and only for, a resident of Jefferson Parish. Yet Carubba takes a homestead exemption on a rather large house — he calls it his “camp” — in Port Vincent, in Livingston Parish. By law, as the Jefferson Parish assessor also confirms, “A homestead exemption cannot be applied to a property that is not permanently occupied by its owner.”….
[The full column is at this link.]